Rayquaza

Morphs [Oak Catalog #]

Rayquaza [#384]

Physical Descriptions

Rayquaza is a large, green, flying serpentine creature with red-tipped, rudder-like wings on its shoulders and down its body, jutting out of odd casings across its body, and similarly-patterned fins on the tip of its tail. Its Aura Markings are yellow rings, which run across the length of Rayquaza's body connected by a line, similar to a stylized bead necklace, with an additional yellow ring on top of its head.

Rayquaza has two limbs with three-clawed carpals, and two long, flat, horn-like structures on its head, with two smaller horns below them. Rayquaza appears to have a prominent gumline, with only two discernible fangs on the tip of its upper snout, the other protrusions in its mouth apparently from pointed gums. Many have speculated that Rayquaza had more fangs and teeth, but that it had lost them over time, either due to collisions, combat, or old age. It has small, yellow eyes with black pupils. Its eyes and markings resemble those of both Kyogre and Groudon.

Lore and History

Due to Rayquaza’s nomadic nature, it has been known to fly all over the world, catching the eyes of many a bystander and sparking the imaginations of dozens of primitive societies. As a result, Rayquaza holds a role in almost all mythologies, its only truly common factor in these myths being the fact that it is capable of flight. Whether its role is protagonistic, antagonistic, or perhaps even simply as a constant force varies with each myth.

Rayquaza’s most prominent and well-known myth is the role it plays in the Hoennese creation myth. In it, Rayquaza is said to be the Deity of the Skies, so that people and pokemon might live. It is also considered the superior to Groudon and Kyogre, often presumed to be the creator of them both in purely Hoennese texts. However, an anecdote in Sinn Mythology states that Groudon and Kyogre were created first as siblings, to create the Land and the Sea, respectively. However, after several cataclysmic disagreements, Rayquaza was created as a peacekeeper between the two. It has such a prominent command over the two Deities that whenever found quarreling Rayquaza would be the only one to end their strife.

How Rayquaza ends the clash between Groudon and Kyogre is debated, though the most unifying theory is the one proposed by those who study Aura. They theorize that the Aura Markings placed upon Groudon and Kyogre by Rayquaza are a means of connecting their actual auras together. As such, the one who engraved the Aura Markings would be able to switch the Auras at will, effectively changing their points of view and allowing them to come to a diplomatic agreement of some sort.

Rayquaza’s most antagonistic role in mythology is a myth originating from the Johto Region. In Johto, Rayquaza is abhorred as a demon that brings bad luck to their crops and livestock. When a family that relies on the farmland holds an encounter with Rayquaza, many take this as a sign of a doomed farmland. Whenever Rayquaza would appear, the weather would appear to be perfectly fine, and in fact in optimal condition, but instead a storm or other unfavorable weather pattern would be enacted.

As a legend passed down from parent to child even today, the details of Rayquaza’s curse are clear. When Rayquaza came, unfavorable weather patterns such as heat waves, thunderstorms or hailstorms would come to pass, but all without the farmer noticing it until it is too late. When the unseen hailstorm would end, the farmland would be completely destroyed, the crops killed, and the livestock frozen to death, for example, leaving the farmland desolate. Likewise, a heat wave that would come during a Rayquaza encounter would end with overheated livestock and dried up crops, leaving them without income and without food.

This legend states that Rayquaza is most dangerous when you can see it in the sky. While it flies past the territory and one is looking in its direction, its cries from high altitude are distorted to sound like cackling. In fact, the way most subscribers to this myth protect themselves from Rayquaza’s curse is by keeping their ears open for the signature sound of its ‘laughter’. When heard, young farm hands are advised to return the livestock to their pens and to take proper measures to shield crops from any possible weather problems.

The only myth where Rayquaza takes a prominently protagonistic role is The Myth of the Warrior, originating from Unova. The myth tells the story of a young woman who had proved to be considerably different from the other women in the village. One day, while she was assisting on the farm on a hot, cloudless day, she looked up to see the Spirit of the Sky flying past her village. Excited, she had ran over to her home to grab her Seeing Scope to get a closer look at it, but on her way, she had found an impending thunderstorm headed toward her village.

The thunderstorm was the work of none other than Thundurus. The girl quickly ran into her village to warn them, but they did not believe her, and threatened to banish her if she did not take back her words. She refused, and was banished from her village from then on, given only the clothes on her back and a sword in a sheath for her own self-protection. Unfortunately, her words rang true, as Rayquaza and Thundurus collided in the sky, and then began a fight to the death for territory. Rayquaza had lost, and fell to the ground, injured.

The girl then embarked on a journey to find the sky’s spirit, without clear intent. When she had found the spirit, it was still alive, but unfathomably bruised and battered. She helped nurse it back to health despite its initial protests, healing its wounds with remedies she had concocted on her own from local herbs she found. Eventually, she had gained Rayquaza’s trust, to the point of being allowed atop its back during flight.

The girl’s happiness was cut short, however, when she learned that her village, in her month-long absence, had become fraught with war and nearly dead from attacks of the rival villages. In her sympathy for her old home, she rode on the back of the Spirit of the Sky, and fought against the rival villages alongside the other warriors. With her sword she took the heads of many generals and soldiers, the Sky Spirit assisting the warrior all throughout, until eventually her village won the feud and was left in peace.

The myth ends with the warrior staying true to her banishment, and with her sword and sheath, flying off into her new home in the clouds with the Spirit of the Sky, never being seen again. Whether this woman truly existed or not is debated, but no proof that she did or did not has been found aside from the myth. Seeing as the myth is over five hundred years old, it is possible that she did exist, but that she had died long ago of old age.

Known Sightings

Rayquaza is often found atop tall towers for rest. However, it is quite picky about which towers it chooses to rest on. Occasionally, it destroys towers it deems intrusive to its territory, which had indeed been intended as a resting place for it. Many attempts to build the world’s tallest tower have been thwarted by Rayquaza deeming this as a threat to its territory. One of the few towers that it prefers to rest in habitually is the Sky Pillar of Hoenn. In fact, it has even arrived at Sky Pillar when summoned there, suggesting that it holds this particular tower in high regard.

One of Rayquaza’s latest successful summonings happened not many years ago, when the child of Petalburg Gym Leader Norman requested its assistance in quieting the feud between Kyogre and Groudon in Sootopolis City, Hoenn. They had been summoned by Team Aqua leader Archie and Team Magma leader Maxie, respectively, with sinister intent. When Rayquaza came to calm the strife, many spectators saw it as it supposedly paused the weather itself and gave a mighty roar to end their battle.

Another sighting of Rayquaza happened some seven years before its summon at Sootopolis. It had been flying in the skies of the North Pole, when a meteorite containing two Deoxys Crystals fell from the sky and into its territory. This had enraged the Sky Spirit, and it gave chase to the Deoxys in an attempt to destroy it. While it had destroyed the Deoxys’ body, its crystal survived, and over the next seven years it regenerated completely.

Soon after the Deoxys had finished regenerating, it had travelled to La Rousse City to retrieve a second crystal that had not regenerated. Rayquaza soon discovered this, and immediately gave chase to the Deoxys in order to completely destroy it. The Deoxys reacted by sealing Rayquaza away from the city with a Psychic shield similar to League moves such as Safeguard or Protect. Rayquaza spent the better part of two days attempting to destroy the shield, until it finally cracked and allowed it entrance to the city.

The battle between the Deoxys and Rayquaza was ruthless, and caused much collateral damage to the city. Luckily, the city had been evacuated before arrival, and Deoxys had previously sealed most, if not all of the remaining humans away in a sports dome. The battle later became more difficult with the discovery of a second Deoxys, and the battle did not wane until the city’s security systems had begun to malfunction and attack both Rayquaza and the Deoxys.

What happened next varies by telling, though the details that can be determined are the fact that, whatever happened, the two Deoxys and Rayquaza both left on good terms. The Deoxys in particular have not been spotted since, but Rayquaza does not seem bitter about the ordeal.

Abilities

As the mythological Spirit of the Sky, Rayquaza holds the power to summon the wrath of the heavens. It is able to do astonishing bouts of power from the weather around it, such as creating an unbearable amount of heat, much like that of Groudon, or an endless downpour of rainwater, much like that of Kyogre. It also has the ability to summon Draco Meteor, a very difficult attack that not many Dragon-Types are capable of learning.

Its Hyper Beam is considered its strongest attack. Its beam attack is ridiculously powerful; unlike other pokemon that use Hyper Beam, Rayquaza does not need to rest in order to recharge its energy, suggesting that its uses of Hyper Beam does not take up all of its energy. Despite that, its Hyper Beam is extremely powerful, and capable of extending through ten acres and destroying anything in its path. It is also astonishingly precise; whatever it aims for, it hits, without hitting anything else.

Its flexibility and ability to hit very hard are to be feared. It has been shown to use its entire body to attack, much like other serpentine Pokémon such as Arbok or Serperior. Rayquaza is recorded to be astonishingly elderly; Rayquaza’s historical influences stretch back to around 1070 B.C.E, almost three thousand years ago. It is also very possible that Rayquaza came into this world years prior, making it effectively three thousand years old at least.

Some of its most amazing abilities are also quite mundane; it has the ability to withstand ridiculous amount of solar radiation, and can survive while in extremely thin air. Rayquaza is able to withstand hurricanes at high speeds as well. This is speculated to be because it creates a packet of immovable air, which is known by the League as Air Lock. This ability has the power to affect other weather conditions and make them completely unknown to the battlers. However, the weather still goes on, but does not affect anyone or anything until Rayquaza leaves.

Hazards

Rayquaza is extremely territorial, even more so than Nidoran. It will blow out anything that invades its territory regardless of what they are or how important they are, or even how persistent. Rayquaza has foiled dozens upon dozens of daredevil attempts to fly higher than the air traffic laws encourage, leading to hundreds of plane crashes. In fact, one of the many explanations for the mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earhart is that her craft had been blown down by Rayquaza.

As you can imagine, Rayquaza’s territorial nature caused many difficulties for the Air and Space Travel Institute. One of the most important rules to be followed is “don’t fly too high ” the only rule that is enforced by Rayquaza itself. Dozens of attempts to put humankind on the moon, or even in space, were also thwarted by Rayquaza and caused dozens of deaths and destruction of rockets.

Currently, Rayquaza’s territorial instincts have been kicked into overdrive after man’s successful foray into space, onto the moon, and back again. The only reason this was possible was because of Rayquaza’s absence during the time of launching, and Rayquaza has yet to forgive them. Mossdeep City has thus far gotten the most Rayquaza sightings in over a hundred years, which has unsettled many Mossdeep natives.

Rayquaza’s ability with Hyper Beam is dangerous, and it is capable of cutting a line through ten acres of forestry with it. With Rayquaza looming over Mossdeep in particular, many are discouraged from visiting at the moment, and the Mossdeep City Gym has been moved to a nearby island, much like the one that used to be on Cinnabar Island. Suggestions have been made to evacuate the city, but as of yet there has been no action taken.

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